The Howard de Walden Estate is mapping out a new occupier strategy targeting businesses supporting the life sciences industry in London.
The historic estate has plans to create a hub for businesses supporting healthcare companies as it looks to bolster office occupancy and investment across its Marylebone properties.
The estate, which includes Harley Street (pictured), has recently seen an increase in lettings to science and technology businesses, including so called ‘medtech’ tenants.
“We have discerned that there’s an increased interest around the enablement or support functions for life sciences in and around Marylebone,” said chief executive Mark Kildea. “We think that is our next opportunity. Why can’t the Knowledge Quarter be extended from Kings Cross through Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia to Marylebone?”
The strategy is “higher risk” but is an “evolution” of the estate, Kildea said, and marks a move “away from the office markets […] to more technology focused business”.
He said: “There are up to 260,000 employees in life sciences and when you strip out the big pharma companies, the [average] number of employees is less than 20, so that is what we need to play to.
“We want to be the provider in an urban setting for those businesses.”
Kildea’s ultimate aim is to develop a life sciences hub that sits alongside “the three acknowledged healthcare campuses” of Imperial in White City, King’s Health Partners near to London Bridge and UCL in Bloomsbury.
The estate has cash to invest, having sold some assets “at the top of the market”, Kildea said, although he added that the team has been “cautious” about recycling that capital into new deals.
He said market disruption ranging from “yields shifting higher and people being forced to sell assets, to property funds coming under pressure” could now provide opportunities for the estate to purchase assets “very selectively”.
“Where it is an asset that’s really interesting that we have been tracking for a long time and it would make sense for us, you want to be bold,” he added. “The best time to buy is always when everybody says not to. That is when opportunities emerge.
“It is important that we have got that cash to do it.”
The estate has continued selling assets, including residential, to “recycle that capital back into what we think is a more productive use”, he said.
See lettings information for Marylebone, London>>
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